Charles Stirton reflects on Middleton Hall and the creation of the National Botanic garden of Wales. Something significant is stirring in the gardening world. This year Wales will make history by opening the first national botanic garden in the third millennium. When visitors enter the new garden on the 24th May 2000 they will be entering a garden not only true to its place but also to its time. It is the first botanical garden to be created in the United Kingdom for more than a century and will become famous for its icon – the Lord Foster designed largest single-span Great Glasshouse in the world. This event raises many intriguing questions especially as The Garden is being created in a newly devolved Wales grappling with the tools of self-determination, at a time of regional regeneration in West Wales and the Valleys, and in an era of immense global environmental concern.